Tag: hikes

US Fed hikes interest rate, 10th in 14 months

[ad_1]
New York: The US Federal Reserve has approved its 10th interest rate hike in 14 months, increasing its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage points.
The Fed also signalled that Wednesday’s hike may be its last one for now, BBC reported.
The rate hikes have sharply raised borrowing costs across the world’s largest economy, spurring a slowdown in sectors such as housing and playing a role in the recent failures of three US banks, the report said.

The moves have pushed the target range for its benchmark rate to 5 per cent to 5.25 per cent, up from near zero in March 2022, the highest level since 2007, BBC reported.
Higher interest rates make it more expensive to buy a home, borrow to expand a business or take on other debt. By increasing those costs, officials expect demand to fall and prices to cool off, BBC reported.
Price increases in the US have shown signs of moderating ever since the Fed started its campaign. In March, inflation, the rate at which prices rise, stood at 5 per cent – the lowest level in nearly two years – though still uncomfortably high for the Fed, which is targeting a 2 per cent rate, BBC reported.
[ad_2]
#Fed #hikes #interest #rate #10th #months

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 4, 2023
BCCI hikes cash prize for domestic tournaments

[ad_1]
New Delhi: The BCCI on Sunday announced an increase in prize money for the domestic tournaments with the Ranji Trophy winners set to receive a whopping cash reward of Rs 5 crore this year.
According to the new pay structure, Ranji Trophy winners, who currently get a cheque of Rs 2 crore, will be receiving Rs 5 crore, while the runners-up and losing semifinalists will get Rs 3 crores and Rs 1 crore respectively.
“I’m pleased to announce an increase in prize money for all @BCCI Domestic Tournaments,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a tweet.

“We will continue our efforts to invest in Domestic Cricket which is the backbone of Indian Cricket. Ranji winners to get ?5 crores (from 2 cr), Sr Women winners Rs 50 lacs (from 6 lacs).”
The cash prize for Irani Cup too has been doubled with the winners getting 50 lakh instead of Rs 25 lakh, and while the team finishing runners-up currently don’t receive any cash reward, they will get 25 lakh from now on.
In Duleep Trophy, the champions will get Rs 1 crore and runners-up team will be receiving Rs 50 lakh, while winners of Vijay Hazare Trophy will now be getting a cheque of Rs 1 crore and the team finishing second best Rs 50 lakh.
Deodhar Trophy winners are set to get richer by Rs 40 lakh and the losing finalists will get Rs 20 lakh. Similarly, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy champions will be receiving a cheque of Rs 80 lakh and the losing team will get 40 lakh.
In a big boost to women’s cricket in the country, the winners of the Senior Women’s One Day trophy will get a cheque of Rs 50 lakh and the runners-up side will receive Rs 25 lakh.

The prize money of the senior women’s T20 trophy has also been increased with the winners set to get Rs 40 lakh, eight times more than what they get now. The losing team will get Rs 20 lakh.
Indian cricket’s 2023-24 domestic season will start with the Duleep Trophy tournament starting on June 28 while the flagship Ranji Trophy will commence from January 5 next year.
The Duleep Trophy, which will be played among six zonal teams, will be followed by Deodhar Trophy (List A) (July 24 to August 3), Irani Cup (October 1-5), Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Men’s T20 national championships (October 16-November 6) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (November 23-December 15).
The senior women’s season will begin with the national T20 championships to be played between October 19 to November 9, followed by Inter-Zonal T20 Trophy from November 24 to December 4.
This will be followed by senior women’s one-day trophy to be played between January 4-26.
[ad_2]
#BCCI #hikes #cash #prize #domestic #tournaments
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 16, 2023
U.S. adds a healthy 236,000 jobs despite Fed’s rate hikes

[ad_1]

Despite last month’s brisk job growth, the latest economic signs increasingly suggest that an economic slowdown may be upon us. Manufacturing is weakening. America’s trade with the rest of the world is declining. And though restaurants, retailers and other services companies are still growing, they are doing so more slowly.
For Fed officials, taming inflation is Job One. They were slow to respond after consumer prices started surging in the spring of 2021, concluding that it was only a temporary consequence of supply bottlenecks caused by the economy’s surprisingly explosive rebound from the pandemic recession.
Only in March 2022 did the Fed begin raising its benchmark rate from near zero. In the past year, though, it has raised rates more aggressively than it had since the 1980s to attack the worst inflation bout since then.
And as borrowing costs have risen, inflation has steadily eased. The latest year-over-year consumer inflation rate — 6% — is well below the 9.1% rate it reached last June. But it’s still considerably above the Fed’s 2% target.
Complicating matters is turmoil in the financial system. Two big American banks failed in March, and higher rates and tighter credit conditions could further destabilize banks and depress borrowing and spending by consumers and businesses.
The Fed is aiming to achieve a so-called soft landing — slowing growth just enough to tame inflation without causing the world’s biggest economy to tumble into recession. Most economists doubt it will work; they expect a recession later this year.
So far, the economy has proved resilient in the face of ever-higher borrowing costs. America’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — expanded at a healthy pace in second half of 2022. Yet recent data suggests that the economy is losing momentum.
On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, reported that U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in March for a fifth straight month. Two days later, the ISM said that growth in services, which accounts for the vast majority of U.S. employment, had slowed sharply last month.

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that U.S. exports and imports both fell in February in another sign that the global economy is weakening.
The Labor Department on Thursday said it had adjusted the way it calculates how many Americans are filing for unemployment benefits. The tweak added nearly 100,000 claims to its figures for the past two weeks and might explain why heavy layoffs in the tech industry this year had yet to show up on the unemployment rolls.
The Labor Department also reported this week that employers posted 9.9 million job openings in February, the fewest since May 2021 but still far higher than anything seen before 2021.
In its quest for a soft landing, the Fed has expressed hope that employers would ease wage pressures by advertising fewer vacancies rather than by cutting many existing jobs. The Fed also hopes that more Americans will start looking for work, thereby adding to the supply of labor and reducing pressure on employers to raise wages.
[ad_2]
#U.S #adds #healthy #jobs #Feds #rate #hikes
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 7, 2023
Amul hikes milk price in Gujarat

[ad_1]
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) on Saturday hiked the Amul milk price by Rs 2 per litre in the state.
This marks the first increase in milk prices since the state Assembly elections in December 2022.
The GCMMF, which is the apex body of milk cooperatives in the state, typically announces milk price hikes in advance but did not do so this time. Sources suggest that the rise in cost of milk production due to increasing fodder and transportation prices has led to the price hike.

After the price revision, the cost of Amul buffalo milk is now Rs 68 per litre, while Amul Gold is priced at Rs 64 per litre, and Amul Shakti at Rs 58 per litre. Amul Cow Milk is now priced at Rs 54 per litre, Amul Tazaa at Rs 52 per litre, and Amul T-special at Rs 60 per litre.
While the prices of different brands of Amul milk were hiked twice across India by GCMMF in the last six months, Gujarat was exempted. However, ahead of the Assembly elections in the state, Amul had raised prices by Rs 2 per litre in October 2022, and then by another Rs 3 in February 2023 for all markets, except Gujarat.
Subscribe us on
[ad_2]
#Amul #hikes #milk #price #Gujarat

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 2, 2023
Student enrolment in Govt Schools hikes by over seven percent this academic year

[ad_1]
More than 50 percent Dip in new enrolments in 2023 in comparison to previous academic year
Srinagar, Mar 31: In the ongoing academic year, the government-run-schools of all districts in Kashmir valley have recorded an increase in student enrolment by more than 19 percent.
The official figures accessed by the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) states that the department has said that there was an increase of student enrolment by more than seven percent in 2023.
According to the figures maintained by the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK), more than 49,900 new admissions were recorded by the department in the recently concluded mass enrollment drive.
The figures reveal that the highest percentage of new admissions was recorded in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district wherein the student enrolment has increased by 11.55 percent.
It states that before the enrollment drive, there were a total of 35,773 students enrolled in government-run-schools of the district. However, after the drive, the district has recorded over 4100 new admissions.
Similarly, in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the department has said that there was a hike in student enrolment by 10.72 percent. The district has also witnessed 13,066 new admissions in this academic session.
Likewise, the north Kashmir’s Bandipora district has recorded increase of student enrolment by 5.89 percent percent followed by frontier district Kupwara with 5.64 percent, central Kashmir’s Budgam district with 6.77 percent, Shopian with 6.48 percent, Pulwama with 7.04 percent and Srinagar with only 3.55 percent.

Earlier, this month, KNO reported about the migration of nearly 8,000 school students in Kashmir division from private to government schools.
However, as of now, the number has hiked to more than 11,283 such admissions.
Pertinent to mention that in the previous academic year, the government-run-schools of all districts of Kashmir valley had recorded an increase in student enrolment by more than 19 percent.
According to the official figures, the department in the previous academic session had said that there was an increase of student enrolment by 19.02 percent in 2022 with a total of 11,817,6 new admissions—(KNO)
[ad_2]
#Student #enrolment #Govt #Schools #hikes #percent #academic #year
( With inputs from : roshankashmir.net )

March 31, 2023
Egypt hikes interest rates by 2% to contain inflation

[ad_1]
Cairo: Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to raise the interest rates of the central bank by 200 basis points in a new bid to contain high inflation,
In a statement on Thursday, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said the deposit and lending rates were raised to 18.25 per cent and 19.25 per cent, respectively, while the rate of the main operation and the discount rate were increased to 18.75 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.
Egypt has been struggling to contain rising inflation over the past years, amid a shortage of foreign currency caused by the global economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Egypt’s annual urban headline inflation increased to a record high of 25.8 per cent and 31.9 per cent in January and February 2023, respectively.
Similarly, the annual core inflation recorded 31.2 per cent in January and 40.3 per cent in February 2023, marking a historical high, the CBE said.
The central bank’s interest rate hike came a week after the US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage point on March 22.
Egyptian economist Rashad Abdo said that the move will encourage citizens to deposit their money so to decrease demand for products in the markets, which would help reduce prices and lower inflation.
“More importantly, it encourages people not to dollarize their Egyptian pounds since the local currency interest rates in Egyptian banks are very high,” Abdo, also head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic and Strategic Studies, told Xinhua.

[ad_2]
#Egypt #hikes #interest #rates #inflation
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 31, 2023
Ahead of Ramzan, UAE temporarily hikes prices of eggs, poultry products

[ad_1]
Abu Dhabi: With Ramzan around the corner, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a temporary increase in the prices of eggs and poultry products by a maximum of 13 percent, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Economy (MoE) approved the decision and the prices would be reviewed in six months’ time from now.
The hike is based on a ministerial resolution issued on March 6, after several companies requested it.
The ministry conducted its analytical study to find a benchmark range for the increased cost of eggs in the UAE.
According to the ministry study, a 13 to 20 percent increase would be reasonable.
The ministry said the temporary price hike was adopted as part of efforts to balance the needs of the commercial sector and consumers as well as maintain food security in the markets.
This increase will help protect egg and chicken companies and farms from global inflation and high production costs, as well as ensure that prices in the markets remain stable and reasonable.

Subscribe us on
[ad_2]
#Ahead #Ramzan #UAE #temporarily #hikes #prices #eggs #poultry #products
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 19, 2023
US adds a robust 311,000 jobs despite Fed’s rate hikes

[ad_1]

Last month, the government reported a surprising burst of hiring for January — 517,000 added jobs — though that gain was revised down slightly to 504,000 in Friday’s report. Consumers also ramped up their spending in January, suggesting that the economy had strengthened at the start of the year. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge also accelerated.
With February’s sizable job growth coming after January’s expansive gain, the Fed may accelerate its rate hikes to combat inflation. When the Fed tightens credit, it typically leads to higher rates on mortgages, auto loans, credit card borrowing and many business loans.
What the Fed may decide to do about interest rates when it meets later this month remains uncertain. The decision will rest, in part, on its assessment of Friday’s jobs data and next week’s report on consumer inflation in February. Last month, the government’s report on January inflation had raised alarms by showing that consumer prices had reaccelerated on a month-to-month basis.
The vigorous job growth for January, reported early last month, was the first in a series of reports to point to an accelerating economy at the start of the year. Sales at retail stores and restaurants also jumped, and inflation, according to the Fed’s preferred measure, rose from December to January at the fastest pace in seven months.
The stronger data reversed a cautiously optimistic narrative that the economy was cooling modestly — just enough, perhaps, to tame inflation without triggering a deep recession. Now, the economic outlook is hazier.
High borrowing rates have cratered the housing market, with home sales having dropped for 12 straight months, a consequence of the average mortgage rate nearly doubling over that time. Manufacturing is also showing signs of weakness. Higher rates have made it harder for businesses and consumers to borrow to buy major factory goods, from machinery to cars to appliances.
By contrast, spending for services — things like traveling, dining out and attending entertainment events — remains strong. Many Americans continue to engage in activities that were restricted during the COVID lockdowns.
Hiring at February’s pace is about triple the level the Fed would prefer. Job gains of about 100,000 a month would be just enough to keep up with population growth and prevent unemployment from rising. A figure that low would also mean that employers weren’t so desperate for workers and wouldn’t have to keep raising wages.

Higher pay is great for employees, of course. But Fed officials say it is contributing to higher inflation, particularly in labor-intensive service industries like restaurants, health care and hotels.
[ad_2]
#adds #robust #jobs #Feds #rate #hikes
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 10, 2023
Biden to unveil tax hikes on wealthy Americans, corporations

[ad_1]
Washington: US President Joe Biden will make a renewed push to overhaul the nation’s tax code and dramatically raise the rates paid by corporations and wealthy Americans, the media reported.
The President is expected to lay out the tax hikes on Thursday as part of his budget blueprint for federal spending in fiscal 2024, which begins in October. The higher taxes would likely be borne by Wall Street and the top sliver of US households, Fox Business reported.
Biden previewed some proposals during his State of the Union address in February, when he called for steeper taxes on billionaires and floated quadrupling the current 1per cent levy on corporate stock buybacks.
“I’m a capitalist. But just pay your fair share,” he said in the speech. “And I think a lot of you at home agree with me that our present tax system is simply unfair.”
The so-called billionaire’s tax would impose a 20 percent rate on both income and unrealized capital gains, including stock and property of US households worth more than $100 million, or about 0.01 percent of Americans, Fox Business reported.
Households that were already paying 20 percent will not be required to pay an additional tax.
The rate may ultimately be even higher at 25 percent, according to a report from Bloomberg News, citing a White House official familiar with the plan.
On top of that, the White House introduced a plan this week to raise payroll taxes from 3.8 percent to 5 percent on Americans earning more than $400,000 in a bid to keep Medicare solvent for at least another quarter-century, Fox Business reported.

Another aspect of the plan would apply to business income, in addition to investment, wages and self-employment income, representing a change from the initial surtax levied when applied under the Affordable Care Act.
[ad_2]
#Biden #unveil #tax #hikes #wealthy #Americans #corporations
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 9, 2023
China hikes defence budget

[ad_1]
Beijing: China on Sunday hiked its defence budget by 7.2 per cent, marginally higher than last year, to 1.55 trillion yuan (about USD 224 billion), marking the eighth consecutive year of increase in its military spending.
China last year pegged its defence budget at 1.45 trillion yuan, a 7.1 per cent increase. This year the defence spending is increased to 1.55 trillion yuan.
However, in view of the appreciation of the dollar against the yuan, this year’s defence spending of China totalled about USD 224 billion compared to last year’s USD 230 billion.
This is the eighth consecutive year that China has announced a single-digit percentage point increase in its military budget.
In his work report presented to the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) – the country’s rubber-stamp parliament – outgoing Premier Li Keqiang called for the armed forces to boost combat preparedness.
China’s armed forces, with a focus on the goals for the centenary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 2027, should work to carry out military operations, boost combat preparedness and enhance military capabilities so as to accomplish the tasks entrusted to them by the CPC (Chinese Communist Party ) and the people, Li said.
The armed forces should intensify military training and preparedness across the board, develop new military strategic guidance, devote greater energy to training under combat conditions, and make well-coordinated efforts to strengthen military work in all directions and domains, Li said.
China is the second biggest spender on defence next to the US whose defence budget for 2023 totalled USD 816 billion.

From India’s point of view, however, China’s defence budget continued to be over three times higher. India’s defence budget for 2023-24 amounted to Rs 5.94 lakh crore (about USD 72.6 billion).
Aided by increasing defence budgets, the two-million-strong PLA, the world’s largest military, is increasingly getting powerful and assertive with the ever-expanding military modernisation of its Army, Navy and Air Force.
The Chinese military is headed by President Xi Jinping, who is the Chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, the overall high command of the PLA.
Xi, 69, the only Chinese leader to have been elected for an unprecedented third term five-year term by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in October last year, also heads the party besides the Presidency.
Under his leadership, the Chinese military has embarked on a massive military modernisation with a goal to be on par with the US armed forces in the next few years.
The Chinese Navy, the fast-expanding arm of the Chinese military, has now three aircraft carriers while its Air Force continued to be modernised with a vast variety of military jets including stealth jet fighters.
Ahead of the NPC session, its spokesman Wang Chao on Saturday defended China’s steady increases in annual defence budgets saying that the country’s defence spending as a share of the GDP was lower than the world average.
China has been ramping up its defence expenditure as it vied with the US for global influence.
Wang said the increase in the defence budget is needed to meet the complex security challenges for China to fulfil its responsibilities as a major country.
China’s military modernisation will not be a threat to any country but a positive force safeguarding regional stability and world peace, he said.
[ad_2]
#China #hikes #defence #budget
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 5, 2023